


Find You in the Day

by Rhiannon87



Series: Some Sort of Crazy [8]
Category: Uncharted
Genre: Comfort, Established Relationship, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-26
Updated: 2016-03-26
Packaged: 2018-05-29 06:30:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6363208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rhiannon87/pseuds/Rhiannon87
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nate's missing, Sully's been kidnapped, and Elena's the one with the plan to save at least one of them. Set during Uncharted 3.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Find You in the Day

**Author's Note:**

> This is the revised/rewritten version of the fic. The original can be found [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/416989).

"The plane will leave at dawn," Rashid said. Elena could hear papers rustling on his end of the call. "Though the arms I had to twist to get that confirmed..."

"All right," Elena replied absently, her mind already several steps ahead. If the plane took off at dawn, it would catch up to the convoy around mid-day-- the worst possible time to be dropping into any desert, much less the Rub al' Khali. She didn't have a choice, though.

"The English woman is going to a great deal of effort to keep this covered up," Rashid continued. "The airfield will be well-guarded, and not by our security."

"Yeah, I understand." She knew damn well this wouldn't be easy. But still: no choice. She had to find Sully. She _had_ to. "Can you, uh, call me if anything changes..."

Elena trailed off as her front door swung open, and her heart stopped for a moment at the sight of Nate, bruised and bloodied but _alive_ , slumped against the door frame. "Oh, my god," she breathed.

"Miss Fisher?"

Right. Phone call. "I gotta go," she said and hung up. Nate took a couple steps into her apartment, leaning heavily on the wall, and Elena crossed the distance between them in a few strides. "Nate..." She threw her arms around his shoulders and hugged him tight. He smelled like sweat and saltwater, and she wondered where the hell he'd been. He slumped against her, his head dropping almost to her shoulder for a moment. Then he patted her back, as if trying to reassure her, and Elena couldn't help a smile. Idiot.

"Thought this was frowned upon," Nate said, voice raspy.

Elena let out a laugh. God, of course he'd try to make jokes at a time like this. "Shut up," she said, stepping back enough to see him. He looked like hell, simply put, and she brought one hand to his face, the other pressed against his chest to steady him. "I really thought you were gone this time."

He winced a little, but shook his head. "Nah..."

"Are you okay?"

Nate put his hand on her shoulder, almost resuming their embrace, and ignored her question completely. "Is, uh... Is Sully...?"

Her stomach dropped. Right. She had to tell him. She let her hands fall away from him and looked down. "He's alive," she said.

"Thank god," Nate breathed and moved past her towards the couch. He needed to rest, she could see that, but...

"But they've got him." Elena didn't turn to look at him right away. She didn't want to see the look on his face. She felt guilty enough about letting Sully get taken in the first place-- it had been her idea to split up to look for Nate, her decision to wait a full hour after he missed their rendezvous to start looking, her failure to track him down until it was too late.

"What?" Nate stopped in his tracks. "Where?"

"They're in a convoy, headed into the desert," she said.

Nate shook his head, a look of pure exhaustion passing over his face. "We gotta go," he said and started towards the door again.

He'd barely made it one step before his legs gave out; Elena had to jump forward to steady him. "Whoa, whoa, whoa-- no, it's not, it's not that simple," she said, steering him back to the couch. "C'mon." Nate collapsed onto the couch, and she left him sitting there while she went to shut the door-- and god, she must have forgotten to lock the damn thing. The lack of sleep was catching up with her. "They've got at least two days' head start on us," she explained. "We'll never catch up."

"We've gotta try," Nate said as she stepped past him to sit down.

They did. If she had her way, she'd still do this solo, but she knew that Nate would drag himself after her if he had to, to protect Sully. "Listen," she began, turning towards him. "I've got a plan. But we're only gonna get one shot at this."

"Okay."

Elena cleared the map and pointed to it as she spoke. "They're loading up a cargo plane at the airport. They're gonna make a supply drop to the convoy."

"We gotta be on that plane."

She turned to look at him, and it felt almost just like things used to be. Talking, planning adventures together... partners. That's what she'd wanted when she'd married him, a _partner_ , and she'd been without one for so long. She nodded and smiled slightly. "Exactly."

Nate sighed as Elena looked back at her map. "You do realize that means parachuting in, right?" he asked.

She chuckled. "We've done it before," she pointed out. Okay, so only once, and maybe--

"Not well," Nate said, voicing her thoughts with a rueful smile. Elena smiled and shook her head. They'd manage. Marlowe's people probably took better care of their parachutes than Sully did. Behind her, Nate sighed. "Okay. I could really use a glass of water, then, we oughta get going."

He moved like he was going to sit up, and she whipped around to grab his arm. He needed rest, dammit. "No, no no no no, no. No, my contact at the airport says the plane isn't taking off until dawn." Nate's gaze slid from her face, going a little unfocused. "In the meantime," Elena continued, patting his shoulder, "just try to get a couple hours sleep."

"I don't think that's a good idea--"

Stubborn ass. "Come on, all right?" She moved back on the couch, pulling him down to her lap, all of it achingly familiar. They'd done this so many times, watching TV or reading books or talking, just... just being together. "He'll call if anything changes."

Nate kept making small, pained noises as he settled in, trying to make himself comfortable. What skin she could see was littered with scrapes and bruises, and she could only imagine how bad it was under his clothes. "You were really gonna do all this on your own?" he asked, pointing at the map.

"For Sully?" Elena nodded, absently rubbing her hand in small circles on Nate's shoulder. "Yeah." Sully was Nate's family, for all the two men couldn't or wouldn't admit it, and when she'd married Nate, that made Sully her family, too.

"Heh." Nate shifted around more, then looked up at her with a faint smile. "I like the way you think."

She smiled back. "I know." That was familiar, too. He used to say it all the time-- usually about things like having cinnamon rolls for breakfast, but sometimes about things that mattered. Like now. Elena brushed her fingers through his hair, shifted in place so his head rested a bit more comfortably on his leg.

Nate's smile vanished, and he looked away, staring off across the room. "No, I mean that's... why..."

She barely heard the last word, saw him mouth the _I_ that came after before he stopped completely. But she could finish the sentence easily enough. _That's why I love you._ Even at their best, he'd had a hard time saying it. And they were a long way from their best now.

Elena sighed and nodded, her heart aching. "I know what you mean."

He shifted his head, and she could see him looking up at her left hand. At her ring. She let him take her hand when he brushed his fingertips against hers, shifting her fingers a bit to rest on his. He looked away after a few moments with a heavy sigh, his eyes falling shut. "I'm sorry."

So many months since he'd left, since that obsession of his started, and he'd finally apologized. Elena nodded again and gently patted his hand. "I know," she said, though she doubted he heard it. With any luck, he was already asleep. She let out a heavy sigh and propped her head up on her hand. She'd sit here with him for a little while, then she'd get back to work.

It was dark when Elena opened her eyes, startled awake by the buzzing sound coming from her pocket. "Whazzat?" Nate mumbled, shifting around on the couch.

"My phone." Elena slid out from under him, keeping one hand on his shoulder so he'd stay put, and pulled her phone out with the other. The screen helpfully told her she had one text message, with the precise take-off time for the cargo plane. It also showed the current time: just before two a.m. "Ah, shit," Elena muttered.  
  
"What? What's wrong?" Nate pushed himself upright-- or tried to. He stopped halfway and groaned in pain, sagging against the couch.

"It's okay, Nate, it's fine," Elena said. "Slept longer than I meant to. We still have about two hours before we need to leave."

He sighed. "Right."

Elena took a deep breath, then got to her feet. "You should take a shower," she said. "I'm gonna make breakfast."

Nate nodded and pushed himself upright again. Elena circled around the coffee table, then held her hands out to him. "C'mon," she said gently. "Up you get."

He hissed between his teeth, but managed to get on his feet. Elena kept one hand on his arm as she steered him to the bathroom. "Shower," she repeated with a light push towards the door. "First aid kit's under the sink."

Nate paused with one hand braced on the door frame. "Thanks," he said, casting a sideways glance at her.

She didn’t know how to respond to that, so she just nodded and turned away. “I’m gonna start breakfast.”

Half a dozen eggs and a couple phone calls later, Elena looked up as Nate walked into the kitchen. He looked better, not quite so close to half-dead. She was pretty sure he still needed another twenty-four hours of sleep and probably a doctor visit, but… those weren’t options right now. The least she could do was make sure he had a decent meal. “Here,” she said, pushing a mug of coffee and the jar of sugar towards him. “Food’s almost ready.”

“Thanks,” Nate said again and grabbed the spoon to start making his coffee. Elena put together two plates with eggs and toast, and as she carried them over to the small table, she realized she couldn’t remember the last time she’d made a meal for the two of them. Even before he’d walked out, she’d stopped cooking for two, unwilling to put in the effort when his share just went cold.

No worries about that happening now. Nate attacked his plate like he hadn’t seen food in days, which for all she knew was the case. That gave her the space to explain her phone calls. “I’ve got an exact time for when the plane takes off,” she said. “And I talked to one of my contacts here, we can stop by and pick up a gun for you.”

Nate nodded and swallowed a bite of toast. “Sounds good.”

Elena drummed her fingers against the table. “What are we going to be up against here?” she asked quietly. _What have you gotten us all into this time?_

He sighed. “Whoever Marlowe left behind,” he said. “Probably less than half her men, but…” He shrugged. “Not sure how much less than half.”

“Right.” Might need to pick up more than just _one_ gun.

Nate winced. “I’m sorry,” he said, half-reaching for her hand before catching himself and dropping his hands to his lap.

“I know.” Starting to become a familiar refrain, and they’d only been on speaking terms again for a few days. Still. It was better than a lot of things he could have said. Elena sighed and picked up her mug, draining what was left of her coffee. “Finish eating,” she said as she stood. “We’ll need to leave soon.”


End file.
